Should information about the coal mine allottees be made public?
1 Sep, 2012A demand has been made by one of the political parties to make the appraisals of the 1,400 applicants for the 140 coal blocks public and reveal the criteria on which the allotments were made.
While a high decibel demand for the cancellation of all the allotments has been made, the questions of suo-motu declaration of the beneficiaries of the allotment are significant. Section 4 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act makes it obligatory to pro-actively declare the particulars of the recipients of the concessions, permits or authorizations.
Many media houses and political parties have already filed RTI applications or are in the process of filing the same to know about the whole process of coal allotment and the beneficiaries. Barring the issues involving commercial confidence, all the aspects of the allotment are being sought by the different groups.